Unvaccinated students at West Virginia college will be charged $750 ‘Covid fee’

Those without shots will also be ‘limited in the use of facilities and other indoor venues’

Unvaccinated students at a university in West Virginia will be charged a $750 “Covid fee” upon their return to campus.

West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) announced on its 2021 arrival on campus page that proof of vaccination would be required to return to the university free of charge.

“Students who do not submit a proof of vaccination or who are not vaccinated will be charged a non-refundable $750 Covid fee for the Fall 2021 semester,” the university’s website reads.

It continues: “The fee will be charged to all students who have not provided a proof of vaccination (full vaccination or first shot toward vaccination) by 7 September.”

Students who contract Covid-19 during the fall semester and cannot return home to quarantine will also be charged $250 to remain on campus to complete their isolation.

Dr James Moore, the dean of WVWC, told WDTV that the fee would be used “to cover the expenses that will come with increased testing and other resources that the college will have to utilise and deploy to keep every student safe”.

All unvaccinated students will also be required to provide a negative Covid-19 test no earlier than seven days prior to arrival on campus.

They will also be required to undergo weekly surveillance testing for the virus conducted by WVWC officials.

The private liberal arts school in Buckhannon said that vaccinated students would be permitted to return to normal on-campus activity and will not be expected to wear masks.

Those who are unvaccinated or do not provide proof of vaccination “will be limited in the use of facilities and other indoor venues for the protection of the health and safety of the campus community”.

The rules also extend to unvaccinated members of faculty, and staff, who must “wear a mask at all times indoors and maintain a social distance”.

Unvaccinated students who fail to follow the arrival guidelines will be “subject to student judicial action”.

The state is seeing a sustained rise in cases of the novel coronavirus driven by the more transmissible Delta variant.

According to WCHS, two new coronavirus deaths and 546 new positive cases were recorded in West Virginia on Wednesday.

The state has seen 171,202 total confirmed cases of Covid-19 along with 2,974 deaths, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.